S01E20 Disappointed Scully

After Mulder explains what happened with Spinney, Scully and Ranger Moore are displeased.  Ranger Moore expresses his anger vocally, however Scully keeps her opinion on her partner’s choice to herself.  It’s a deliberate action on Scully’s part; Mulder did a selfish thing, but to criticize him in front of Ranger Moore would be unprofessional.  When she goes to speak with Mulder, not only does she close the door to increase their privacy, she also checks that they’re alone before she closes it.

Before she walks over to Mulder, there’s a beautiful moment where Scully actually pauses as she looks at Mulder and presumably contemplates her approach for this talented but childish hot mess of a partner of hers.

The argument they have is brief. Unsurprisingly, Mulder is shit at apologizing.  He acknowledges his mistake, but does not say he’s sorry.  Instead he derails her presumed Discussion Regarding Poor Decision Making Skills and tells her that they have no time to spare because they need to take action on how to protect themselves from the bugs.  When she calls him out on the impact of his decision, he calls her “sanctimonious” and describes their argument as a waste of time.  It’s an appeal to Scully’s intellect, but does nothing to repair their interpersonal relationship, or soothe her feelings.  Scully accepts the logic because of course she’d rather focus her energy on surviving, but her face shows just how disappointed she is in Mulder.

Her emotion is not unnoticed by Mulder.  As he passes by her, he actually touches her shoulder.  Mulder knows he fucked up and doesn’t need a dissertation on exactly what he did wrong.  All he is capable of doing is trying to salvage the situation so neither of them suffer from his decision to act on his own.

S01E20 Trust Me

This episode is not the strongest one of the season.  It’s difficult to understand why Mulder behaves this way.  He already had his gun out when he approached Spinney, indicating a trigger-happy mistrust, yet he’s even quicker to accept Spinney’s word that he’ll save them.  It was barely two episodes ago (”E.B.E.”) that Mulder had the foundations of his trust in people shaken.  Mulder even explicitly states he has no reason to trust Spinney.  Sure, Spinney went along with Mulder’s inspiration of brain-sucking amoebas, but Mulder isn’t that cheaply won over.  Yet not only does he allow a total stranger follow through on this plan that relies on him honoring his word, Mulder doesn’t even immediately inform Scully of his decision.

Instead, he spends time fixing the radio so they can transmit a call for help.  Which at least indicates that Mulder isn’t 100% confident that they’ll have to rely on Spinney for the rescue, even if he’s comfortable enough with his decision that he didn’t tell anyone.

Understandably, both Good Guy Ranger Moore and Scully are very disappointed in Mulder.

S01E20 Brain Sucking Amoeba

Mulder introduces his theory: BRAIN SUCKING AMOEBA.

Spinney buys into it. He supports Mulder’s Leap Of Logic and has been nodding along to Mulder’s conversation with Scully.  Spinney is all about nature being scary and deadly, and karmic comeuppance.

Scully is just shocked that once again Mulder has surprised her.  She’s expected vampires, she’s heard more than enough about aliens, and there was that Liver Man; she thought she knew how to anticipate where Mulder’s mind would go.  But no, BRAIN SUCKING AMOEBAS.  Actually, I am not sure why Scully reacts like this.  This isn’t the first time a weird bug has disrupted their case, after all.

Meanwhile, as soon as Mulder said BRAIN SUCKING AMOEBAS, Ranger Moore immediately checks out.  He looked at his watch then over his shoulder towards the window.  It’s the second time he’s done this since the scene began.  It’s a subtle detail that’s later commented on by Spinney: Ranger Moore is worried about Humphreys, who was, after all, more than a professional acquaintance and was (as Spinney reminds us) a friend.  It’s past sunset and Humphreys still hasn’t called yet, and Moore is so worried that he even tries to make himself feel better about it by announcing to the room that Humphreys probably just hiked out of the forest.

Moore is probably the friend who makes sure everyone has a designated driver and a warm sweater and snacks.

S01E20 Spice rack

First, there goes Mulder touching sticky residue with his bare hands while Scully is not even a meter away wearing a set of gloves.  Residue that he’s already touched once earlier.

Second, Mulder may have mocked the logging crew as rugged manly men in their prime, but one or more of those fine people could not stand life without proper spicing of food and actually brought cayenne pepper, garlic powder, and various other seasonings to the campsite.   It looks like there’s ground pepper and a pepper grinder there.  Just because you’re a full day’s hike into a forest doesn’t mean you can’t have flavorful food.

S01E20 Science! And Clean-up Duty

This is their first good look at the strange mites that have been consuming people in the area.   All it took was a portable monocular microscope, a paper towel, and a core sample extracted by ranger Moore.  I think we can assume the microscope belongs to the ranger too, possibly as part of a kit he brings to educate children at a wilderness camp.   We’ve never witnessed Mulder or Scully bring a microscope along on a trip because I think both agents depend on access to a lab, either locally or by mailing samples somewhere else.

Later, Scully for some reason decides to look at the samples again, but this time in a more official way.  Gloved, taking notes, and a sample jar with brush.  I’m not sure how Scully expects to see anything - there’s supposed to be a light you turn on when you’re magnifying your sample.

Interestingly, the messy cabin has been cleaned up significantly since we first saw it.  Boxes have been taped up (evidence? all the dirty dishes?) and the table is not only cleaned, but also has a napkin holder, salt and pepper shakers, and a comparatively huge jar of sugar. As if they’re in a cozy dive restaurant. Someone not only cleaned this space, but wanted to do it right.

Who cleaned the table? Definitely not Humphreys, and probably not Mulder.  Mulder strikes me as the type of cleaner who moves clutter around without really organizing it. Maybe Scully, who seemed the most disgusted by the sight and stench when they first arrived. For sure, she would probably never do science on a filthy table.  But that’s not when the table was cleaned.

Here’s when it was last dirty: When Spinney was discovered eating the rotten, mouldy food.

And here’s what it looks like after Spinney declares that he needs food because he hasn’t eaten in there days:

(They are, of course, looking at Humphreys here.  Thus the looks of annoyance on everyone’s faces.)

The tabled was cleaned because nobody should have to eat on a disgusting table.  Spinney was hungry enough to eat off it anyway, but someone decided that’s not for decent people.  And I think that the person primarily responsible for that domestic activity was Ranger Larry Moore.  Who probably also cooked Spinney’s soup too.

 He’s even pouring tea for everyone!

S01E20 Scully VS Humphreys

Our Victim of the Week (one of many, technically), Steve Humphreys, is not the most easily likeable person. Nor is he that unsympathetic, even if he is lacking in warmth and people skills.  Impatient, serious, and blunt if not brusque, Humphreys is still there to find out what happened to his employees so he can personally answer their widows about their fate, as well as ensure that they get justice.  But there's still something about him that makes him annoying: whether it's him bringing a rifle on a Federal investigation and pointing it at a person, almost certainly approving of using protected trees for profit, or just seeming like the type of boss who secretly bought life insurance policies on all the loggers so he could cash out on their lives without helping their family one bit.

Perhaps the most surprising is how much Scully seems to find Humphreys more offputting than I think he warrants. When they first shake hands, she seems polite enough. She even smiles.

Then there was several hours of driving and a hike through a forest.  Something must have happened - maybe he cracked a joke about Mulder’s inability to read a map, maybe he expressed a dislike of the Navy and that’s as good as mocking her departed beloved father.  Whatever it was, it wasn’t enough to sway Mulder’s opinion of Humphreys; he certainly doesn’t like him, but that’s more about Mulder’s distaste for authority figures who swing guns around than about Humphrey’s character.  Whenever Humphreys speaks or leaves the room, Scully’s face speaks volumes about how much she thoroughly dislikes the man.

This dislike is one-sided.  Humphreys isn’t especially ruder to her than he is to anyone else in the group.  Humphreys doesn’t even seem to notice Scully’s disgusted exasperation. And of course this beautiful moment, in which Scully actually rolls her eyes a little and takes a deep breath before she speaks very professionally to Humphreys.

Scully looks like she is barely withholding herself from telling Mr Humphreys that as a very skilled medical doctor it is her professional opinion that he needs to get a prostate exam because there is something very horrid stuck in his butt.

By the time Humphrey stomps off to hike, by himself, to a car that he doesn’t have the key for, nobody is unhappy to see him leave or eager to stop him from doing something foolish.  Mulder and the ranger are vaguely concerned, but Scully just looks disappointed that she didn’t get to cut him down with one of her characteristic passive remarks.

S01E20 Airlifted Doctor

Probably because she’s the lightest, Scully is the one lifted up to the cocoon by the others.  Judging by the look on her face, she is regretting every life decision that got her to this position now.

After they get the sac down (an activity that unfortunately we don’t get to see), Moore cuts open the webbing.

And as he does, Scully is already taking one glove off.  She already saw the fingers poking out, she suspects there’s a corpse, possibly human, inside there, and she is Dr Scully.  Without being told, without thinking out loud, she knows what she’ll have to do next.

Note: neither Moore nor Mulder touch the desiccated corpse themselves.  Understandable for Moore, who keeps looking off to the side and away from the contents, but somewhat surprising for Mulder.  Touching dead bodies is Scully’s territory and he will not encroach, perhaps.

I’m not sure what happened on set this day, but it looks like the prop crew replaced the corpse for this shot.  It’s a completely different piece.

S01E20 Following the Leader

Mulder and Scully have never been to the area before, and they’re accompanied by a trained employee of the Federal Forest Service.

Yet look who’s taking lead on their exploration!

This arrangement makes sense in two ways I can think of: A) the one with the shortest legs is setting the pace of the expedition or B) Mulder kept walking off when Ranger Larry Moore was in lead so the obvious solution was to take advantage of Mulder’s natural inclination to follow Scully, while Moore walks in the rear to make sure Mulder doesn’t fall into a hole or something. 

S01E20 Snifftesting

Upon entering the abandoned cabin and seeing what a filthy mess it is inside, this is how our two fine agents react:

Scully’s face is, I think, the face of all of us for this scene.  Gross.  Even if it wasn’t a mess, it definitely smells.  By contrast, it looks like the mess has reminded Mulder to do the dishes when he gets back home.

As Scully scouts the next room, Mulder touches strange residue covering the fridge, then uses those same sticky fingers to pick up a bag of possible evidence.

And then smells it, in this room of rotting food, because Mulder.  The implication is that it’s weed, but I think it’s actually a ziploc of dried spinach.

I make fun of him for it because it’s terrible for forensic science (or abiding by laws because Mulder in particular trespasses without much consideration for  legal consequences), basic hygiene, and disrespects personal property, but the fact that Mulder is such a tactile-centered person that he has to touch, smell, and see everything for himself is actually kind of fantastic.  Scully sees, feels, and (unfortunately) smells too, but for her it’s maybe note-worthy, suggestive for further investigation but not conclusive.   Scully can deny or argue about their experiences because this sort of experiential information is so subjective by its very nature.  You can’t peer-review a memory; you can’t objectively document evidence that doesn’t exist except as a wild theory or alternative interpretation.  But Mulder experienced it; that is evidence itself.   Of course, Mulder has the “burden” of photographic memory: he is basically a repository of evidence just by going out and smelling, seeing, and touching everything.

S01E20 A lot of flannel to be choking down

Obligatory Scully Smile Appreciation.

S01E20 Rugged Manly Men

Do logging crews normally pose with their chainsaws for a group photo?

This is how Scully reacts to Mulder’s characteristic flippant personal remarks on their case:

A little amused, but only a little.  Notably, she doesn’t banter back and merely ignores his joking. She’s still trying to figure out the point of what he’s showing her.  After all, he asked her to “take a good look” as if there’s something unusual or note-worthy about what she’s looking at, and Scully is actually trying to answer the question.  This is probably a case if he’s put together a slideshow about it, but what is she supposed to see, if anything, what did Mulder notice that she can’t spot, and how is it relevant to their work?  But the truth is that it is exactly what it appears to be: a group photo of a bunch of men.  Mulder wasn’t actually inviting her to demonstrate her observational skills; as soon as Scully says she gives up trying to solve the (non-existent) problem, he scoffs that the government gave up too.  By “take a good look,” Mulder meant “look at yet more evidence of The Government not going far enough for this mystery.” 

We got a good look at the basic layout of the X-Files office several episodes ago. Now we can see into the small lab space too.  Yet again, the layout is different.  Scully is sitting on a stool instead of the red office chair that’s usually there, and it looks like she has a textbook or similar opened in front of her.  Please note that he has TWO different microscopes.  He probably had to get another after the first one was almost always taken by Scully.

S01E20 Darkness Falls

HERE WE GO.

S01E20 Judging An Episode By Scully’s Faces